PARSONS -- During the past two weeks, questions have popped up over the amount of property owned by one of West Virginia's congressmen.

It turns out U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., may own more than he even knows.

In Tucker County alone, the Congressman and his wife own all or part of eight parcels, several of which are around Canaan Valley Resort and Timberline Four Seasons Resort.

The congressman's property ownership took center stage after the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative government watchdog group, noticed a rapid increase in Mollohan's reported assets.

NLPC chairman Ken Boehm said his group uncovered hundreds of instances where Mollohan omitted or misrepresented the value and scope of real estate holdings in financial disclosure forms.

Mollohan said the NLPC's accusations are outrageous.

"I stand behind all of my financial disclosures," he said during an interview April 12 in Clarksburg. "I've been filing them for more than 20 years. Have there been mistakes in the past? I'm sure over the course of 20 years there have been some small mistakes, but I've never omitted or misrepresented anything."

Mollohan said his rapid increase in assets was related to wise investments in real estate. He and his wife, Barbara, own a 50-percent interest in 27 condominiums in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The couple also owns a beachfront home and several adjoining lots in North Carolina, homes in Fairmont and Washington, D.C., and property in Morgantown, including the Ramada Inn.

The State Journal asked Mollohan during the Clarksburg interview whether he owns any other property.

Mollohan said he did not.

Then, this week, Mollohan told the Charleston Daily Mail he owned a house in Canaan Valley that he and his wife purchased with his parents, Helen and the late Robert Mollohan, in the mid-1990s. He said Barbara and he purchased a lot next to that house, as well as two other lots in Tucker County.

He also told the Daily Mail he and a childhood friend purchased a farm along the Cheat River in Tucker County in 2005.

The Tucker County Assessor's Office shows Mollohan owning a bit more than that. In total, Mollohan owns part or all of just fewer than 305 acres in Tucker County.

During a phone interview with The State Journal April 19, Mollohan said there must have been a misunderstanding.

"I certainly wasn't trying to hide any lots in Canaan Valley or Tucker County. It's all been disclosed," he said. "Believe me, I wasn't trying to hide any investments."

Here is how his land ownership breaks down, according to deeds filed with the Tucker County Clerk's Office:

• Alan and Barbara Mollohan bought their first two parcels in Tucker County with his parents in 1998 for $100,000. The two lots, totaling 1.99 acres, are in a subdivision off of state Route 35 south of Davis on the way to Canaan Valley State Park.
• In April 2003, the Mollohans purchased a lot in Winterset IV, an upscale, ski-in, ski-out development at Timberline, for $85,000. It currently is listed in several Tucker County real estate guides for $385,000.
• Alan and Barbara Mollohan spent $150,000 on two more parcels totaling 1.92 acres in October 2003. The lots are next to the property they bought with Helen and Robert Mollohan.
• In January 2004, the Mollohans spent $45,000 on a 2.09-acre lot in Black Bear Woods subdivision, a planned community near Canaan Valley.
• In March 2004, Alan Mollohan alone purchased a fifth lot in the same subdivision where he, his wife and parents own property. He purchased 1.08-acre lot for $30,000.
• Mollohan's final purchase was in September 2005, when he and childhood friend Dale McBride bought 297.88 acres near the community of St. George for $800,000. The land was purchased under the name M&M Partners LLC.

Boehn said Mollohan's financial disclosure forms show him owning four or five properties in Tucker County, not eight. The farm is expected be listed on the 2005 disclosure form which won't be filed until May.

In regards to the other lots, Boehn said Mollohan does not have to disclose any property worth less than $1,000 or if it produces less than $200 in rental income per year.

"There may be a reason why he didn't list all of the property -- he could argue he just goes to the undeveloped parcels to camp on and has no interest in selling them. If that's the case, he doesn't have to disclose it," Boehm said. "But if it's close to the line, a person ought to disclose it just to be safe."

Mollohan said his wife and he paid for all of the Tucker County property, as well as property in North Carolina and Vermont, by refinancing 27 condominiums they own in The Remington building in Washington, D.C.

Mollohan said his wife and he partnered with one of Mollohan's cousins, Joe Jarvis, and his wife, Rosemary, in 1996 to buy out a company that owned 17 condominiums in The Remington.

"We formed a limited liability company with $25,000 each to buy the company or borrow money to do that," Mollohan said.

During the next five years, the Mollohans and Jarvises purchased 10 more condos in the building.

At about that time, the real estate market in the D.C. metro area started to rebound, and the condominium property values started to climb dramatically -- jumping from $82,000 each in 1996 to $325,000 by 2003.

The couples bought two more condos between approximately 2001 and 2003, using money they made by refinancing some of the condos they already owned.

The equity from those units also paid for most of the Mollohans' purchases in Tucker County.

"Only one purchase was financed," he said, explaining there is a $150,000 mortgage on the October 2003 purchase of two lots. The farm near St. George is owner financed.

"The equity in the Remington is where this money came from," he said. "We reinvested all of the money we've made from those units into these properties."

Mollohan contends NLPC's investigation is a setup by disgruntled Republican leaders.

He said he is being punished for taking a stand against changes leaders wanted to make last year in the House Ethics Committee, of which he is ranking member.

"What would I have done differently if I could have? Well, I could have never been a member of the Ethics Committee. I could have played ball with the Republican leadership," he said.